Organization says it will work with the First Nations art community to design a new medal

A non-Indigenous design team created this medal, saying it was 'inspired by the work and aesthetic of native artists of Canada,' for the Vancouver Running Festival's Seawall Race. Organizers were met with backlash after posting a photo of the medal on Facebook. (Vancouver Running Festival/Facebook)

Organizers of a Vancouver race won't be handing out First Nations "inspired" medals it commissioned for a run this month, following a social media backlash because the medals weren't designed by an Indigenous artist.

The Vancouver Running Festival (VRF) posted a photo of the design on Facebook last week, in anticipation of the James Cunningham Seawall Race in Stanley Park.

The caption said the badge — depicting a bear holding a salmon in its mouth — was "inspired by the work and aesthetic of native artists of Canada and the U.S., but was not created by a First Nations member."

Allison Beardsworth, originally from the Dene First Nation in the Northwest Territories, has been a part of Vancouver's running community for about four years. She's registered for the seawall race.

"First Nations art created here is world-renowned, identifiable, beautiful and it tells stories. So when a medal is designed and it's a bear holding a fish and there's no real reason behind it, it doesn't make a lot of sense," she added.

Beardsworth said the group teaches people about appropriation and why it shouldn't happen. She said she encouraged officials with the running festival to read the initiative's website.

"I think that living in Vancouver, where we just had the walk for reconciliation and we live in a city where the mayor has recognized we live on unceded Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Watuth territory, things like this should happen less or not at all," Beardsworth said.

"Chief Ian Campbell said once, 'We will not be invisible in in our land' — and it's true."